Hey guys,
It's been a while since I've posted, but I check out the forums from time to time to keep up with recent hardware.
Anyway, I was just browsing the internet today, and my computer shuts off immediately with no warning, no pop, no smoke smells. I thought the power had gone out at first, except all the lights were still on. This has never happened to this particular build, which has been incredibly reliable from day one, even through a few upgrades.
So the first thing I check is the power supply. After switching it off for a few minutes, I turned it back on and nothing happened. The fan on the power supply didn't budge, neither did any other fans. So I busted out of my old reliable Silverstone St560zf (5yrs old but works great) and installed it and I got the same result. Then took out the battery and cleared the CMOS.
So next I take my htpc and try to power it with both psus. They they both work flawlessly, fans spinning and components powering up from the get go. I try my video card in the htpc and it works jsut fine. My ram, similarly works just fine in the htpc, and my htpc's ram, when installed in my computer, doesn't allow it to boot.
So I feel like I've ruled everything out but the motherboard and CPU. The CPU was overclocked to 3.8ghz (using low power idle states as well) at 1.3v or so. Others bios settings were conservative. I searched for any damage to capacitors on the motherboard and saw nothing, but I didn't look too closely. I tend to think the motherboard is the culprit, as cpu's seem to die very rarely, especially when only moderately overclocked with lowish volts.
Here are my system specs:
Rosewill Capstone 450w (had for about 6 months, newest part)
Gigabyte P55a-UD3
Intel core i-750 (@3.8ghz, c-states enabled), Thermalright Venomous-X
BFG gtx 260 core 216
16gb (2x8gb) G.Skill ddr3 1600 cas9
OCZ Vertex I 128gb
5 storage drives, two 1tb wd greens, 1 1.5tb samsung spinpoint, 1 1.5tb wd green, and 1 wd portable 2tb external
case is an old lian li pc-a10b with 4 120mm fans, 3 of them 120x38 Sanyo Denkis
Hopefully I can get some advice or suggestions on how to test whether it is the cpu or motherboard. This may end up being my excuse to get a haswell or ivy bridge.
Thanks for the help guys.
Edit: I looked more closely at the mobo and have discovered this is goldish metallic looking substance on the chips under the heading "M-Bios" and "B-Bios." They don't look destroyed, though. I don't know if this means anything.
It's been a while since I've posted, but I check out the forums from time to time to keep up with recent hardware.
Anyway, I was just browsing the internet today, and my computer shuts off immediately with no warning, no pop, no smoke smells. I thought the power had gone out at first, except all the lights were still on. This has never happened to this particular build, which has been incredibly reliable from day one, even through a few upgrades.
So the first thing I check is the power supply. After switching it off for a few minutes, I turned it back on and nothing happened. The fan on the power supply didn't budge, neither did any other fans. So I busted out of my old reliable Silverstone St560zf (5yrs old but works great) and installed it and I got the same result. Then took out the battery and cleared the CMOS.
So next I take my htpc and try to power it with both psus. They they both work flawlessly, fans spinning and components powering up from the get go. I try my video card in the htpc and it works jsut fine. My ram, similarly works just fine in the htpc, and my htpc's ram, when installed in my computer, doesn't allow it to boot.
So I feel like I've ruled everything out but the motherboard and CPU. The CPU was overclocked to 3.8ghz (using low power idle states as well) at 1.3v or so. Others bios settings were conservative. I searched for any damage to capacitors on the motherboard and saw nothing, but I didn't look too closely. I tend to think the motherboard is the culprit, as cpu's seem to die very rarely, especially when only moderately overclocked with lowish volts.
Here are my system specs:
Rosewill Capstone 450w (had for about 6 months, newest part)
Gigabyte P55a-UD3
Intel core i-750 (@3.8ghz, c-states enabled), Thermalright Venomous-X
BFG gtx 260 core 216
16gb (2x8gb) G.Skill ddr3 1600 cas9
OCZ Vertex I 128gb
5 storage drives, two 1tb wd greens, 1 1.5tb samsung spinpoint, 1 1.5tb wd green, and 1 wd portable 2tb external
case is an old lian li pc-a10b with 4 120mm fans, 3 of them 120x38 Sanyo Denkis
Hopefully I can get some advice or suggestions on how to test whether it is the cpu or motherboard. This may end up being my excuse to get a haswell or ivy bridge.
Thanks for the help guys.Edit: I looked more closely at the mobo and have discovered this is goldish metallic looking substance on the chips under the heading "M-Bios" and "B-Bios." They don't look destroyed, though. I don't know if this means anything.
Last edited:
